Climate Justice: Radioactive and Toxic Waste, Racism and Rising Oceans
At the recent Global Training in July 2020, VP Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project continued their call to prioritize and center the environmental justice work of communities of color and indigenous communities. In this spirit, the Bay Area Chapter invites you to come learn about and engage with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice’s “We Can’t Breathe” campaign in San Francisco’s Bayview and Hunters Point (BVHP) neighborhoods, a low-income community of color (33.7% African American, 30.7% Asian, and 24.9% Latinx per the 2010 Census) where residents suffer from high rates of asthma and cancer and where radioactive waste and toxic contamination at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site and multiple other contaminated sites are located.
As one of the lowest-lying points in San Francisco, Bayview Hunter’s Point will also be first impacted by rising oceans, which have already risen by almost 8 inches as of 2016 and which threaten to create flooding of hazardous and radioactive waste of neighborhoods, transportation infrastructure, and the entire San Francisco Bay, while several hundred new luxury homes have been built next to and possibly on top of radioactive contamination, and 10,000 more homes are planned at the contaminated Shipyard Superfund Site where radioactive and toxic cleanup has been marred by fraud and lax standards. Speakers will also discuss the August 25 Car Caravan Protest to SF City Hall for the Bayview Hunters Point Environmental Justice “We Can’t Breathe” Campaign.
Speakers:
Bradley Angel, Executive Director with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice
Pamela Tau Lee, Board Chair Emeritus with Chinese Progressive Association Dalila Adofo, Community Organizer, Policy Advocate, and Coordinator of the Bayview Hunters Point Community Air Monitoring Project with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice
Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD, Medical Director of Golden State MD Health & Wellness and Principal Investigator for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program.
Moderator: Alma Soongi Beck, Climate Justice Co-Chair for the Climate Reality Project Bay Area Chapter
